Walton Court, formerly Birds Eye Offices, including courtyards, water garden features and front pool, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey

Summary

Offices for Bird’s Eye Foods, 1961-2 by architects Sir John Burnet, Tait and Partners, with Bylander, Waddell and Partners, engineers. Extended 1967-8. Landscape by Philip Hicks.

Description

MATERIALS AND STRUCTURE
Precast concrete and pre-stressed concrete frame. Floor construction of high alumina cement (HAC) beams at 700/750 mm intervals, supporting concrete slab floors, giving an office floor span of 42’ (c13m), avoiding internal columns.

Curtain wall of plate glass and anodised aluminium over blue vitreous enamelled spandrel panels. Bush hammered concrete arcade at ground floor level, now white-rendered. Plant rooms behind pierced ceramic screens.

Concrete garden structures and parapet walls to ponds.

PLAN
Long, low, flat-roofed rectangular building, 318’ long by 170’ deep, built on a 5’ 3” module, on three storeys. Added block to west forming T-shaped layout overall. The main block is symmetrical in plan set round two open internal courtyards and overlooking an L-shaped reflective pool and lawns to the north. Entrance to south to minimise intrusion in a residential area and to avoid interruption to the long roadside elevation. Laid out as two floors of offices over a directors’ suite overlooking the pool and gardens. Services concentrated in three structural service cores, plant hidden behind pierced ceramic screens at roof height. The rear, western section of the ground floor, originally garages, also houses plant.

EXTERIOR
The building is set back from the road behind open lawns and the ponds. Crisp, clear, rhythmical elevations created by anodised aluminium curtain walling of half-hexagonal sections attached to paired aluminium mullions, set against dark blue vitreous enamel spandrel panels and as a fascia above the first floor windows. Floor to ceiling glazing on all floors, on the ground floor set behind arcades of bush hammered concrete piers, set out on a ratio of 1:4 with the upper floor bays. Canted beams echo the hexagonal forms in the upper floors. The entrance is set below a deep, shaped canopy with a corrugated soffit, also echoing the profile of the ground floor arcade and loosely resembling a bird in flight. The entrance is lined in white and grained marble, with a similar floor. Plant rooms on the roof are clad in pierced screens with very narrow gauge, square gridded cladding.

The courtyard elevations are similarly detailed to the principal facades, with doors opening onto them. The courtyards were laid out by Philip Hicks. The paved eastern courtyard contains a sunk pond with a fountain and tall monolithic fluted concrete forms by Allen Collins, set on concrete plinths. The western courtyard has raised cantilevered concrete slabs of various heights and shallow concrete-edged beds, on a concrete surface strewn with boulders.

The 1967/8 building is similarly treated, but without the ground floor arcades, and is joined by a glazed link to the original building.

Integral L-shaped reflective pool enclosed by low concrete parapet walls and paving are strewn with boulders and planted with reeds and water lilies. Adjacent to the entrance, mounted on a rocky base, bird sculpture by John McCarthy (National Heritage List for England, Listed Grade II, 1245780).

INTERIOR
Marble-lined entrance lobby gives onto the entrance hall. This foyer, including the ground floor stair well/lift stack are faced in marble and fluted timber panelling, the eastern wall fully-glazed where it overlooks the eastern courtyard. Stairs at the rear rise above a shallow marble-lined pool fed by water stoups which project from the core of the stair well and lift stack. The lower flight of the stairs has open treads, giving a view of the pool.

Elsewhere, the former directors’ suite, offices, former kitchens, canteen and plant do not have special interest.

History

Bird’s Eye was one of the first companies to move its offices out of London, bringing all its staff together on one site in Walton-on-Thames, close to rail and airport connections. The company invested in prestigious, bespoke headquarters, which were intended to endure for many years ahead. The crisp geometric forms and silver-blue colours reflected the image of the company's products.

The building was designed by Sir John Burnet, Tait and Partners and constructed in 1961-2, the landscape by Philip Hicks. The design allowed for an added fourth storey, which the company wanted. However, it was not given planning permission, and instead, in 1967-68 the building was extended by a small addition in similar style, reached via a glazed link.

The building reflected the 1960s predilection for geometric op-art forms in the design of its curtain walling which is enhanced by the reflective pool running the length of the building. It also reflects the trend at the time to incorporate works of art into the design as part of the aesthetic and as a symbol of the company. In this case, standing in the arm of the pool at the entrance to the site is a sculpture of rising birds by John McCarthy (separately listed, National Heritage List for England, Grade II, 1245780).

This integration of landscape, building and art is repeated elsewhere within the building. Of the two internal courtyards, also by Hicks, one is Japanese in feel, the other includes monolithic concrete sculptures by Alan Collins, set among formal rectangular pools and trees; it was restored in 1998 by Elizabeth Banks Associates. When first opened, there was a menagerie of small animals including flamingoes, penguins and alligators in the two courtyards, they were eventually removed to London Zoo. Water too played its part inside the building, where, at the base of the stairs there was a shallow pool fed by water stoups.

The landscape played an important part in setting the building in its suburban context. Occupying a 6 acre site which was previously allotments, the landscape was laid out by Philip Hicks with lawns and planted with trees and shrubs. The building is highly visible from the road, set back behind open lawns beyond a low parapet wall, while the pavement outside is lined with cobbles linking the theme within the site with the public area.

The company was forward thinking in other ways; and the canteen was one of the first in the country to serve only pre-packaged, quick-frozen meals, a system that required minimum staff. The company tested its own produce in rooms equipped with special lighting to make the food appear monotone in colour (and thus allow the testers to concentrate on the taste).

Reasons for Listing

Walton Court, formerly offices for Bird’s Eye Foods, 1961-2 by architects Sir John Burnet, Tait and Partners, landscape by Philip Hicks, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Design interest: bespoke, crisply defined office building, overlooking internal courtyards and a reflective pool; an early example of the 1960s predilection for geometric op-art shapes, here reflecting the image of the company;

* Materials: precise and inventive detailing and finishes, notably in the curtain walling; high quality marble and timber finishes to the entrance and internal public areas;

* Integrated design: a particularly successful and extensive scheme, incorporating the reflective pool and enclosed courtyards set with sculpture and water features, in the wider setting of open lawns;

* Historic interest: an innovative company, one of the first to move its headquarters from central London to a single suburban site.

External Links

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